CDC blocks bird flu data as H5N1 spreads to 70 Americans

Acting HHS Secretary DFDorothy Fink issued a memo on Jan. 21, 2025 ordering an immediate pause on all CDC, FDA, and NIH external communications until a presidential appointee approved them. The freeze lasted through Feb. 1, 2025 and blocked three pending bird flu studies from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The CDC hadn't missed a weekly MMWR publication since Jan. 13, 1961. Former CDC Director TFTom Frieden compared the halt to finding out that your local fire department has been told not to sound any fire alarms. The pause broke a 64-year streak of uninterrupted public health reporting.

H5N1 infected 70 Americans between March 2024 and February 2025. One person died in 🎺Louisiana in January 2025, the first U.S. bird flu death. Of those 70 cases, 41 caught it from sick dairy cows and 26 from infected poultry. The source for three cases couldn't be determined.

The virus spread to 1,009 dairy herds across 17 states and killed 175 million birds including wild birds, commercial flocks, and backyard chickens. The outbreak that started in dairy cattle in March 2024 became the largest bird flu crisis in U.S. agricultural history.

On Feb. 6, 2025, the CDC posted a data table showing a cat infected with H5N1 may have spread it to another cat and a human in the same household. Officials deleted the data within hours. A 🗽New York Times analysis of the deleted table found two cases where cats got sick within days of infected dairy workers showing symptoms.

The USDA accidentally fired several employees working on the bird flu response in February 2025 as part of DOGE-recommended cuts. The agency scrambled to rehire them days later. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the administration they need to measure twice, cut once.

The CDC ended its H5N1 emergency response on July 2, 2025 and shifted to monthly reporting instead of weekly updates. Dr. NSNirav Shah, former CDC principal deputy director, said career scientists initiated the decision, not political appointees. Surveillance continues under the CDC's routine influenza division.

Sen. Dick Durbin released a staff report documenting the bird flu studies suppressed during the Jan. 23, 2025 MMWR freeze. He called on the Trump administration to immediately end the suppression. Former CDC official ASAnne Schuchat warned that political lens over science creates chilling effect.